Letter: Kansas for sale?

When Gov. Sam Brownback declared he would make Kansas a model of “true” conservatism, did that imply a takeover by the infamous Koch brothers? I don’t believe anyone anticipated the eventual governance of Kansas by a plutocracy. It didn’t take long to make their true intentions known. Notice they are directing millions of dollars to influence primary outcomes, and much of that money will be devoted to defeating Republicans who dared defy them on the issue of wind energy. Simply put, they would prefer we got all our energy from coal, petroleum and gas — finite resources that added billions to their coffers.

Sadly, Rep. Russ Jennings, R-Lakin, learned a hard lesson when he defied the Kochs and dared honor the wishes of his constituents. Farmers and ranchers he represented found wind energy to be profitable. Rep. Jennings was doing his job, but we all know that a good deed rarely goes unpunished. The Kochs will make an example of him by using every means possible to defeat him in the August primary.

It’s up to the voters. Are the people of Kansas for sale? We’ll find out in the August and November elections.

Hope so...but then again I end up agreeing with Richard about 90% of the time. By the way, don't know if you've noticed, but Richard also is among the 90% of voters who would like to shove a little something up their wa wa peddles...if you get my music...

Sorry Slade, but you are trying to transfer your own political beliefs on everyone else in the state.

I can assure you that there are hundreds of thousands of people in Kansas that are in support of the goals of the Koch groups. This includes reduced taxes, decreased government spending, less intrusive government regulations reaching into citizens lives, more efficient government, and reform of the failing public education system among other things.

Though the teacher unions have many members, many of those members do not align themselves with the political initiatives the group pushes.

Thousands of people in Kansas are in support of making the Kochs richer and more powerful? Interesting. You'd think they'd be more interested in making themselves richer and not having their political might dampened by two individuals.

If a teacher does not like the political initiatives of their union, they are free to leave that union.

Now we know what happened to congressional republicans that once occupied congress. But no more the GOP is dead. What the nation has is an ALEC GOP with the primary mission of buying as many city,state and federal services as possible AND THE TRILLIONS UPON TRILLIONS UPON TRILLIONS UPON TRILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS THAT SUPPORT THESE SERVICES.

The ALEC GOP right wing party is posing as the republican party which is fraudulent representation of the GOP . Their primary objective is to have America as a one party
nation and stealing the most successful government services as too many voters sit
back and do nothing.

Rather than serve the public interest, ALEC champions the agenda of corporations which are willing to pay for access to legislators and the opportunity to write their very own legislation.

Brownback helps surrogates and lobbyists for corporations to draft and promote state bills which:

wages war on women

• gut environmental laws

• create a regressive tax system

• eliminate workers’ rights = lower wages

• undermine universal and affordable health care

• privatize public education

• chip away at voting rights.

What Does ALEC Lobby For?

ALEC claims it “does not lobby in any state.” However, ALEC’s tactics and operations are strikingly similar to those of registered lobbyists with corporate benefactors.

Beyond distributing model legislation, ALEC provides its members with “issue alerts,” “talking points,” and “press release templates” expressing support or opposition to state legislation.

The organization tracks the status of its model bills in legislatures, and sends its employees to testify in support of its bills in state houses across the country.

I see that the usual vapid comments have arrived. It's ok for the Kochs to have out-sized influence if it doesn't break any laws (that you can prove.) It's ok if some other group has a tiny amount of influence somewhere. It's ok if you agree with their points. Honestly, it's just not ok. It's not ok if it's Bloomberg. It's not ok if it's Koch. We the people should control the legislator, not the highest bidder.